, 1887-07-09
EXHAUSTION OF PETROLEUM.

What Scientific Men Have to Say on tho
Observation-Disclosures signs.
1t can hardly be doubted, l fear, that
the supply both of oil and gas has now
Leen so largely drawn upon that within
less than a score of years scarcely any
will be left Which can be brought mt rea-
sonable cost into the market, The boun-
diaries and extent of the oil regions have
been determined. All the sands in which
oil will ever be found in such quantities
as to be worth working are known, and
have been drilled through i'll various
places. 1t is scarcely possible that any
new fields will be discovered which will
be comparable either in extent or pro-
ductiveness with those now known. So
far bach as January, 1888. Professor
Lesley pointed out that no petroleum is
now being produced in the Devonian
rocks, either by the process akin to dis
~tillation or otherwise. What has been
stored up in the past, a process which
probably lasted for millions of years,
may be got out. But when these reser-
voirs are exhausted there will be an end
of the petroleum supply. 1.-THE discov-
cry of a few more pools of two or three
millions of barrels each can make little
difference" Mr.. CARL, whose opinion
on the geology of the oil bearing dis
tricts may be regarded as decisive, has
come to a similar conclusion. "There
are not at present." he pointed out quite
recently, ''any reasonable grounds for
expecting the discovery of new fields
which will add to the declining products
of the old, SO as to enable the output to
keep pace with the shipments or con-
sumption"
The stored petroleum in this region has
then beer very nearly exhausted. In
less h a a generation a small part of the
population of this continent alone has
used up nearly ali the valuable stores of
energy which had been accumulated dur
ing millions of years of the geologic past.
More recent inquiries confirm the con-
illusions of Professor Lesley and Mr..
CARL. The signs of exhaustion in the oil
producing regions can now be clearly rec
ognized. During the last four years there
has been a steady diminution in the out
put, accompanied by IN increase in the
price per barrel, which nevertheless-does
not even maintain the nominal annual
value of the supply. Mr.. Wrigley an
nounced in 1882 that 154, 000, 900 barrels
of oil had already been raised up to the
beginning of that year, and expressed
the opinion that not more han 90, 000,-
900 barrels remained to be raised. In
this last estimate he was undoubtedly
mistaken, for up to the beginning of 1885
no fewer than 261, 900, 900 barrels had
been raised, and in the year 1885 as
many as 81. 042, 041 barrels (nearly 3 ,000,-
900 fewer than 1884 were obtained. But
although the estimate in 1882 of the
quantity of oil still remaining fell far short
of the truth, and though we may admit
as possible that even now much more oil
remains to be put out than the most ex-
perienced biologists suppose, the signs of
approaching exhaustion are yearly be-
coming more unmistakable.
The expense of bringing the oil to the
surface grows greater year by year, and
threatens soon to become SO great that
the profit of working the oil stores will
be evanescent. So oon as that state of
things is approached, we may be sure
that the oil mems occupation in Pennsyl-
vania and western New York will be
gone. 1t has been stated that the Japan
csc, unwilling to let the least fraction of
the earth's interior stores be lost, have
been known to %excavate a vertical shaft
to a depth of 600 feet, in order to raise a
few gallons of oil per day, But in Amer
lea, when the oil mines are so near ex-
haustion as this, they will be abandoned;
nay, they will DO abandoned long before
they approach such a condition. With
the failure of the oil supply, all the col,
lateral branches of industry associated
with it will fall too.-Knowledge.